Cari (TI)

Today I had to depart home rather early, as I had told my friend Oli, that I would pick him up at the train station in Arth-Goldau at 0745. The plan has been to drie to Faido, then by bus to Cari (-Paese) and further to launch by chairlift (the ride costs only 10chf - a great value for money). Both us have been rather surprised by how many pilots had had the same idea (especially as the thermal fcst had looked less optimistic this morning than on the days before).

Pano looking S-W at the middle station

According to the info posted at the cashier, there should be 2 launch sites, but only 1 launch had been groomed; at the other (better!) one, the snow has been still knee deep and thus not permitting TO :-(. Most probably here there would have been no tailwind and the launch has no shallow part but gradually becomes steeper

launch, which is very flat at the bottom

This launch unfortunately is not very good, as it quickly becomes rather shallow; furthermore we constantely had a light tailwind... I had attempted several launches, but never could reach enough speed enabling me to 'overfly' the shallow part. In the end I had to pack up and ride the chairlift back down; another pilot had suffered the same 'fate' and several others needed more than 1 attempt before they could fly....

As there was no bus schedued for the next 2.5hrs, I had been lucky to catch a ride down to Faido after having waited less than 10'.

Many thanks to Oli for his company and help on my relaunch attempts; thanks also to the 'unknown' pilot for his advice and assistance!

But in the end -for those who could fly ;-) - conditions turned out rather better than fcst (several >100km flights have been posted on XContest).

shortly before 1600 (Oli finally landed around 1700)...